2014 Arkansas Governor's race: on Health Care


Mike Beebe: Expand state Medicaid, but with low-income private option

Gov. Mike Beebe has signed into law a measure reauthorizing Arkansas' compromise Medicaid expansion for another year. Beebe on Friday signed the budget bill for the "private option" plan that was approved last year as an alternative to expanding Medicaid under the federal health law.

Through the private option, Arkansas is using federal Medicaid funds to purchase private insurance for low-income residents. Nearly 94,000 people are receiving subsidized insurance through the program, the first of its kind approved by the federal government. The program's future had been in jeopardy, but survived a defunding push in the House earlier this week.

Source: Arkansas Business e-zine on 2014 Arkansas gubernatorial race Feb 24, 2014

Asa Hutchinson: A lot of budget "fuzziness" if private option is not renewed

Gov. Mike Beebe spoke at the winter conference of the Arkansas Sheriffs' Association a day after Hutchinson spoke to the same group. Hutchinson told the sheriffs, when asked about the possibility of budget cuts if the private option is not renewed this year, that he believes "the numbers are very, very loose." He told reporters later that "I think there's a lot of fuzziness on what may or may not happen" if the private option is not renewed.

Beebe told the sheriffs there is no "fuzziness" to his administration's estimate of $89 million in expected savings from the so-called private option, emphatically rejecting Republican gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson's description of it by that term. "It's not hype. It's not B.S. It's plain old arithmetic," he said.

The private option is the state's program that uses federal Medicaid money to provide private health insurance to low-income Arkansans. About 85,000 people have enrolled so far.

Source: Arkansas News on 2014 Arkansas gubernatorial race Jan 28, 2014

Mike Ross: Voted for ObamaCare early on but now consistently against it

Back in 2009, Ross cast a somewhat reluctant vote to advantage the health care reform debate in June of 2009 along with a block of fellow Blue Dog Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Ross contends that vote does not matter since that version of health care reform--H.R.3200--did not become law. Instead the Senate version--H.R.3962--eventually was the bill that became ObamaCare.

The truth? Ross was the leader of a small group of Blue Dogs that signed on to ObamaCare after receiving several key concessions. One of the concessions was a delay in any vote until after the August recess. During the heated town hall meetings, Ross came to see that he could not support ObamaCare. After that, he consistently voted against the bill and even voted for repeal. However, the turnaround does not erase the record.

Source: Russellville Courier FactCheck: 2014 Arkansas Governor race Nov 27, 2013

Mike Ross: Voted against individuals keeping health insurance plans

[A GOP press release highlighted] a 2009 committee vote where Ross against an amendment that would have allowed individuals to keep their health insurance plans if they liked the plan. Now, millions of Americans got cancellation notices from their health insurance companies.

"The Republican Party is referencing an amendment to a bill that never became law," said a Ross spokesman. "Ross' opponents have used distortions to smear Ross' consistent opposition to ObamaCare. The truth is Mike Ross allowed Americans' to keep their health insurance by consistently voting against ObamaCare and voting to repeal the law multiple times over."

The truth lies somewhere in between. While the parliamentary maneuvers did end up causing a different bill to become ObamaCare, the bill Ross voted for in committee in 2009 was the version the House was advancing at the time. If that bill had not mattered as Ross now claims, there would not have been the intense debate and pressure put on Ross to vote for the bill.

Source: Russellville Courier FactCheck: 2014 Arkansas Governor race Nov 27, 2013

  • The above quotations are from 2014 Arkansas Gubernatorial debates and race coverage.
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Health Care.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by Asa Hutchinson on Health Care.
  • Click here for more quotes by Mike Ross on Health Care.
Candidates and political leaders on Health Care:

Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R) 		Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R) 		Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Dec 05, 2018